


Doesn't Spoil Them All

by SailorChibi



Series: Keeping On verse [3]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Age Play, Alec's past, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awesome Eve Moneypenny, BAMF Eve Moneypenny, Baby Q, Back-Stabbing, Betrayal, Comforting, Crying, Daddy James Bond, Diapers, Gen, Headspace, Hurt James Bond, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Little Headspace, Little Q, Poisoning, Post-SPECTRE, Protective Alec Trevelyan, Protective Eve Moneypenny, Protective James Bond, Protective Q, Relationship Negotiation, Working things out, alternate universe - littles are known, caregiver alec trevelyan, caregiver james bond, daddy alec trevelyan, nappies, non sexual age play, non sexual infantilism, thumb sucking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22946755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: In the wake of the email that R sent out, Bond is healed. But that doesn't mean everything is okay.
Relationships: Alec Trevelyan & Q, James Bond & Alec Trevelyan, James Bond & Q, James Bond & Q & Alec Trevelyan
Series: Keeping On verse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1447996
Comments: 30
Kudos: 248





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I promised that part three of this verse would come and here it is. Many thanks for your patience.

For a long moment, Q couldn't move. He couldn't even breathe. His eyes were locked on the screen of the laptop, reading and re-reading the email over and over again. Moneypenny had been calling his name, but, when he didn't answer, she approached and looked at the screen over his shoulder. The sound of her gasp made Q feel even worse if that was possible: it confirmed that what he was seeing was not a terrible hallucination brought on by stress and lack of sleep. R really had outed him to MI6.

"I have to - I have to recall this email," he said numbly. No sooner were the words out than he snapped into motion, navigating his way to MI6's servers. His heart sank with a renewed flush of dread as he realized that the email had already been opened and read dozens, if not hundreds, of times. He quickly deleted all of the copies that were still on the server, but he wouldn't be able to do anything if someone had saved a copy to their desktop or printed it out, and it would take far too long to hack into every individual MI6 computer to check no matter how tempted he was.

"That bitch," Moneypenny breathed. "I can't believe she did that! How could she?!"'

"She knows you're on to her," Q said. "This is her revenge." He took his shaking hands off the laptop keyboard and clenched them in his lap so tightly that his blunt nails pierced the skin of his palms. He didn't care. 

He had spent his whole life hiding his classification, but ever since joining MI6 he'd had to step up his efforts. After all, he was now working around agents whose very job was to seek out the truth. But that had never bothered him. Q enjoyed what he did at MI6 and, for the most part, he liked the people he worked with. The day he became MI6's Quartermaster, the title alone made the sacrifices he'd put himself through worth it. 

And with one email, R could've ruined all of it. How could the agents, never mind Q-branch, respect him now that they knew the truth?

"Q, I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry," Moneypenny said. Her voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away. 

Q shook his head, unable to speak. Not because he would break down into tears, but because his heart was thudding so hard against his ribs that he just didn't think he could. His mind raced as he tried to think of what he should do next, but nothing made any sense. Should he call Alec? Go talk to M? Throw himself on the mercy of Q-branch? Hide away? Quit?

"Okay, Q, you need to breathe." The laptop vanished from his lap and Moneypenny's face filled his vision. "You're having a panic attack." Her mouth was pinched, cheeks flushed with red, but she held his gaze calmly.

"I'm not," Q said, or at least he tried to, but as he'd thought no words came out. Instead, it was an unintelligible wheeze that probably would've made anyone other than Moneypenny laugh. As it was, her eyebrows furrowed with deepening worry and she rested her hands over top his. Her hands were very warm, he noticed distantly, or perhaps it was just that he was cold.

"It's going to be okay. We can figure this out," Moneypenny continued, her voice now gone low and soothing. "I know that you didn't want anyone else to know, but you're the Quartermaster. You're too valuable to all of MI6 for something like this to make a difference, okay?"

Her words made sense, but Q couldn't believe them. Still, he tried to force himself to take a breath and it must have worked because Moneypenny gave an encouraging nod. She stood there with him until he was regularly breathing to her satisfaction, and then she sighed. For the first time, he distantly registered that there were new lines around the corners of her eyes that had never been there before.

"Look, I need to take this laptop and the information on it to M. He needs to know immediately. Do you want to come with me?" she said.

Q started to shake his head again, then stopped. It was possible that M might want someone to do more digging. Julian had done an admirable job so far, but there were some areas that only Q would know existed, much less know how to get into. Aside from that, he didn't relish the thought of sitting here by himself and dwelling on everything that MI6 now knew. 

Plus… he inwardly cringed at the idea that someone might come looking for him. Q had always prided himself on being able to take care of himself, but he wasn’t exactly operating with his full sensibilities at the moment between R’s betrayal and the shock of the email. If that happened, he didn't want to be alone. Moneypenny wasn't Alec or James, but she was fierce enough to pull a gun on anyone who acted stupidly in front of her.

"I'll take that as a yes," Moneypenny said, pulling away to pick up the ladder. Q missed her touch immediately. He could've _really_ used a hug right about now, but he stopped himself from going too far down that track. Moneypenny was not one of his caregivers, and frankly he didn't want her to be. But he missed James and Alec more in that moment than he had ever before.

He stood on legs that felt too shaky to really hold him up and followed Moneypenny out of the room. Q-branch quieted the instant Q exited his office, and the hair on the back of his neck prickled. He didn’t need to look to know that everyone was staring at them. Moneypenny looked around the room with piercing gaze, and one by one Q felt the eyes fall away.

Of course, as soon as Moneypenny walked past with Q trailing in her wake like a wayward toddler, the eyes were back. He felt them boring into his back all the way up until the door swung shut behind him, at which point he couldn’t help shuddering. Was this how it was going to be from now on? Endless staring wherever he went? People just waiting for him to do something that could be attributed to his headspace.

“Steady on, Q,” Moneypenny said quietly. “Unfortunately, you’re the current source of hot gossip, but that won’t last forever. Soon enough there will be another rumour or something scandalous enough to grab their attention.”

“Sure,” Q said, hiding his thumbs in his fists. The urge to go find somewhere quiet and just have a moment to himself was overwhelming; he had to force himself to keep following Moneypenny towards M’s office. It didn’t help that each person they passed turned and blatantly stared. When Moneypenny noticed, she scoffed.

“Ridiculous. They did the same thing to me back when I shot 007. Do you know what I did? I kept a list of every arsehole who couldn’t keep their eyes to themselves, and then I submitted it to M and made sure that she knew those idiots should never be put out in the field or raised above their current paygrades. Clearly they’re incapable of any sort of discretion.”

For the first time, Q smiled a little. “And what did M do?”

“She took me at my word, of course. Unless she had a very good reason otherwise, most of those people are still in the positions they were back then. I’m going to do the same thing now.” Moneypenny narrowed her eyes. 

“You can’t blame them for –”

“For what? For staring at you like you’re an alien. For acting as though this is the surprise of the century. Or for making their reactions so bloody well known?” Moneypenny hissed, sounding like she was having a hard time keeping quiet. “MI6 is supposed to be the best of the _best_ , Q. I understand if it takes people a little bit to assimilate their new image of you. That’s fine. But they’re not supposed to be so damned blatant about it. Can you imagine if they were out in the field and found this out about a potential mark, or someone they needed information from? That doesn’t bode well!”

Q opened his mouth and then promptly closed it, because Moneypenny had a point and he had not considered things like that. All MI6 staff and agents went through extensive training when they were hired, and part of that included classification training. It had been repeatedly stressed that some Littles were just as capable of organized crime or a killing spree as anyone else, and that people would need to be able to react accordingly.

Perhaps that message hadn’t quite sunk in for some.

On the one hand, Q was pretty sure that this wasn’t a situation they ran into very often so perhaps people were due some slack. But on the other hand, he knew for a fact people made assumptions about classifications all the time. So long as you didn’t show up holding a rattle or a toy, they assumed you were baseline. He’d never had _tell_ anyone that he was baseline. It was clear he wasn’t a caregiver, so baseline it was. And in their line of work, assumptions could be dangerous.

Moneypenny stopped in front of the door that led to the outer room of M’s office. Before she could open the door, it opened by itself. M and Tanner stood there, both looking surprised. The four of them blinked at each other for a moment before Tanner cleared his throat.

“I’ll do as you said, Sir,” he said with a nod to M. Then he slipped by Moneypenny and Q and quickly disappeared down the hall. Q, watching him go, felt a pang. Was this going to change his relationship with _everyone_?

“Eve, Q, please come in. I was just on my way to find out,” M said, stepping back to allow them to enter. They proceeded into M’s office, whereupon Moneypenny shut the door and set the laptop down on M’s desk. She opened it up and invited M to look at it with a silent wave of her hand.

M sat and did so. At first his expression was confused, then incredulous, then disbelieving, before finally settling on a rage so potent that Q actually pitied R a bit. It took M about twenty minutes to read through all of the emails, and no one said a word until he was done. When M finally reached up and closed the laptop, he stayed quiet for a few seconds longer before he spoke.

“Q, I want to apologize to you,” he said at last. “It’s clear that R is a mole who has been operating under our very noses, but that email she sent out was a personal attack on you. We should have found evidence of her betrayal a long time ago.”

Q shook his head. “I didn’t see it either and she was working right under me,” he pointed out. In fact, after Boothroyd retired, Q had been _grateful_ for R. She had been a little condescending at times, but she’d also helped to smooth the path between Q and some of the sceptical older employees who hadn’t retired or left when Boothroyd did and at the time that had been invaluable.

“There’s no point in blaming each other,” Moneypenny interjected. “Blofield is exceptionally good at this. He chooses people who will blend in and who won’t be noticed. R’s been working here for years, even longer than Silva did.”

“Do you think she was a mole all this time?” M asked.

“That’s hard to say. We’d have to do a really in-depth investigation, but you also know how good Blofield is at covering his tracks. Determining an exact date that he got to R could be impossible,” Moneypenny said, frowning. “However, we have ample evidence that she’s working against MI6, so I’m not sure that matters.”

“No, you’re right.” M sighed deeply. “Alright, first things first. There is a lot of information in here about 007. Q, I need you go through these and select out the ones that could help Medical figure out exactly how to heal him. Moneypenny, I want you to help him. Before you send those emails, redact anything that’s not essential to that. I don’t want too much information on R’s crimes getting out.”

“Got it,” Moneypenny said with a nod.

“I’m going to go have a conversation with Dr Wood. She should be made aware of what’s coming. I will also give the word for R to be found and detained immediately.” M’s eyes were bright with anger as he stood. “Don’t worry, Q. You have my word that she will not get away with this.”


	2. Chapter 2

M’s words were comforting, but not as much as Q would have hoped. He was glad to bend his head to his task and start looking through R’s emails. What he found was sickening. He had always known that people could be gifted actors, but this was a new level altogether. R truly loathed James Bond. Many of the emails she’d exchanged with Blofield described what they would like to do James in vivid detail.

He was definitely going to be having some new nightmares after this.

“Send the emails to me and I’ll redact what I can before we send them to Medical,” Moneypenny instructed him, settling in at M’s desk. She logged in under her own credentials. 

“Here’s the first few,” said Q, forwarding her three emails that made reference to poison. Moneypenny opened up the first one. Q watched carefully and saw the corners of her lips tighten and turn down. Her jaw clenched as she read the first few lines.

“I should have just shot her,” Moneypenny said at last.

“I wouldn’t have stopped you,” Q said very quietly, and then he turned back to his task. For the next couple of hours, he lost himself in digging up as much information as he possibly could. He scoured every file that R had ever so much as touched, looking for any mentions of poisons, toxins, or even just James’s name. Moneypenny grimly read through each one and then redacted anything she felt wasn’t relevant before sending them on to Dr Wood. She received no word back, but Q hoped that meant Wood was moving quickly.

His neck ached by the time he lifted his head a while later, and he absently reached up to rub at the tight muscles. There was still more of R’s stuff to dig up, but he seemed to have reached the end of anything that pertained directly to the poisoning. He had to admit, her plan had been smart: James had been given the first part of the toxin on his mission. That toxin had been slow-acting, and may not have killed James at all depending on James’s natural resilience.

But the second part… that poison had been painted on R’s cookies as a glaze. It had activated the toxin in a much more lethal way, turning them into a deadly duo that would have wreaked havoc on James’s body. Had Moneypenny not found out about R when she had, it was very unlikely that Medical would have been able to save James. Q’s breathing quickened at that, a tell-tale burn flaring up behind his eyes.

He could have lost James over this, and maybe Alec too, and all because… well, Q didn’t know precisely why. But there had been enough information in R’s emails to make him suspect that it was because R had been jealous. Angry that when Boothroyd retired, she had not been promoted. Instead, they’d brought in an “outsider”. It made Q’s stomach hurt to read the things she said about him. Cruel, horrible, vicious things.

The thing was, the position of R had always been second in command of Q-branch. But R didn’t always become Q. Maybe it had been that way once, but the position of Q was too important for that now. MI6 truly needed the best of the best to lead their departments – especially a department like Q-branch. Ultimately, Q was personally responsible for the lives of the 00-agents. Not only did he oversee the creation of their weapons, usually doing most of the work himself, he was also the person who jumped in to help when 00-agents found themselves in a bind.

If the old M hadn’t believed that R was the best, and clearly she hadn’t, there was no way R was getting that position. Most likely R would’ve enacted some kind of revenge against the old M had she still been alive, but that ship had sailed long before R was in a position to do such a thing. Which, Q reflected tiredly, was probably a good thing, or they might have had _two_ poisoned people dying in Medical.

“Okay,” Moneypenny said at last, and Q glanced over at her. “It looks like Wood has everything that will be of use now. Hopefully it’s what they need.” 

“Great,” Q said. “You said it was Julian who helped you, correct?”

“That’s right,” Moneypenny said a little warily. “Why?”

“This is going to be a mess. I’m going to have to take a long, hard look at all of my employees. I need someone I can trust to help with that,” Q replied. He’d start by looking at Julian. If Julian was clean, then he’d be able to help Q out. 

“Oh.” Moneypenny smiled at that, seemingly pleased. “Alright then. I can help too.”

Q was about to politely reject the offer, but paused. After all, Moneypenny wasn’t part of Q-branch but they never would have caught R without her. It hadn’t even occurred to Q to suspect R. It made him inwardly cringe to think about what R would have had in store for him or Alec down the road; he was certain that it wouldn’t have been pleasant. Moneypenny’s quick thinking had saved more than just James.

“You know what, that would be lovely,” Q said slowly.

Moneypenny looked genuinely pleased. “What should we do first?”

“I think we should –” Q cut himself off as the door to M’s office swung open and Alec barrelled in. His hair was windswept and his clothing was askew. He stopped short when he saw Q.

“Tanner called me,” he said. “James?”

“We don’t know yet. We just finished sending the information to Medical,” Q said, straightening his glasses with a hand that trembled. Moneypenny looked between him and Alec and then quietly stood up, gathered her things, and slipped out past Alec. She closed the door behind her, leaving Alec and Q alone. Q almost wished she hadn’t gone. The tension between them was twice as potent without someone else there to help.

“Q,” Alec breathed at last. He closed the distance between them in a handful of long steps. Q honestly didn’t know what to expect, so he was shocked into silence when Alec gently gripped his upper arms and pulled Q to his feet and into a hug.

The pressure of that hug took Q’s breath away. It was everything he’d been longing for since this whole miserable experience began. His eyes filled with tears so fast that his glasses fogged up; he squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to keep himself under control. But that was easier said than done. Alec’s arms were warm and tight and strong. He held Q securely, one hand coming up to cup the back of Q’s head.

“Thank you,” Alec whispered. “Oh, Q. Kotenok.”

The nickname was enough to rattle free the sob that Q was trying in vain to keep contained. He took a deep breath to calm himself but it was too late; tears began rolling down his cheeks, hot and sticky and shameful. To hide them, he buried his face in Alec’s shoulder and clung to him, shaking from head to toe. Alec shushed him and held him tighter, so tightly that it hurt a little, but Q wouldn’t have wanted him to let go for anything.

“Th-the e-m-mail,” he managed to stammer out, and Alec sighed.

“I saw it. I don’t normally check my e-mail, but she managed to do something that flagged my phone… I was already on my way back when Tanner called me,” he said. “That stupid bitch. I’m sorry. I know how hard you worked to keep your classification a secret.”

Q nodded tearfully, uncertain as to whether he could speak without sobbing again. Probably not. Alec’s words were gratifying to hear nevertheless. Out of everyone, James and Alec had the most appreciation for the hoops that Q had jumped through over the past several years. And even they didn’t know everything: they didn’t know about the suppressants he’d tried, the people he’d paid off, the records he had illegally changed, the people who had reacted poorly when they found out. 

He’d tried. He’d tried _so hard_. 

“It’ll be okay,” Alec murmured. He switched to Russian, because he knew that Q liked it and found it comforting when he spoke in his native tongue. Q knew it for the tactic that it was, and wasn’t sure if he was bothered or not by the fact that it worked. He could feel himself calming a little, soaking up the comforting way Alec’s chest rumbled when he formed the vowels.

He closed his eyes again, resting his head on Alec’s shoulder. How was it that the world, which could seem so great and vast and terrible, always seemed more surmountable when Alec or James was around? And it was even more so when the two of them were there. He really didn’t know how they did that. Common sense told him it was a child’s belief in their parents. But had Q been a fanciful man, he would have called it magic. 

The urge to call Alec ‘papa’ welled up in him so forcefully that Q had to physically bite his lip to keep it inside. He reminded himself that things with Alec had been terribly awkward, and that not too long ago he’d been wondering whether Alec even wanted him anymore. It would seem he had his answer now, but it had only come after they received word that James was probably going to survive. 

If this didn’t work, and James passed away, Q realized that he had no idea what would happen. Hell, even if James did survive, he didn’t know what was going to happen. It was a thought that helped him to control himself a little, enough so that he was able to lift a hand to wipe at his face rather than slide his thumb into his mouth the way he really wanted to. 

“Here,” Alec said, freeing one arm to pull some tissues from his pocket. He handed them over and Q gratefully mopped at his face, sniffing. He was a mess and that was embarrassing, but honestly Alec had seen him at far worse than this.

“Thanks,” he whispered, swallowing hard. His throat was dry and he told himself that was the reason that the word came out raspy. It had nothing to do with wanting to throw himself into Alec’s room and break down into tears. Of course not.

And the way Alec was looking at him right now wasn’t helping. Concern was bright in Alec’s eyes, and his hands twitched like he wanted to touch Q but wasn’t sure if he should. Q could only meet his gaze for a moment before he had to look away. He reminded himself that he couldn’t hide in M’s office forever. People would judge him even more if he walked out of here with red-rimmed eyes.

“Have you got as far as you can?” Alec asked, nodding to the computer.

“Um… sort of. I need to do a thorough examination of everything R touched, and start looking at Q-branch in detail…” Q sighed at the thought of it all, a headache thrumming to life right behind his eyes. This was going to mean hours and hours of overtime, and that was if he _didn’t_ find anything. If he did, it would potentially mean months of work.

“Right,” Alec said with a faint frown. “Well, on your way to Q-branch, let’s stop by Medical and see if they’ve figured anything out yet.”

“I doubt they have. Moneypenny only sent them the information a few hours ago,” Q said half-heartedly.

Alec shrugged. “If they haven’t, maybe we can motivate them properly.” He flashed a smirk and put a hand on the back of Q’s neck, solid and comforting. Q leaned into that touch, craving it now more than ever, and nodded. 

He tried to ignore all the eyes that swung his way when he and Alec emerged from M’s office. That’s when he discovered the benefit of having a 00-agent with him, as Alec’s icy cold gaze was more than enough to detract even the most curious agents. They all turned away, and Alec let out a faint huff of what might have been amusement but could have just as easily been scorn. He and Moneypenny, Q reflected, would get along very well.

They made their way to Medical, where there was a flurry of activity happening. No on was looking in their direction, but it had nothing to do with Alec. A cold lump formed in Q’s stomach as he wondered if something had gone wrong. He exchanged an anxious look with Alec and picked up the pace, practically running towards the back room where James was with Alec hot on his heels. When they burst into the room, Wood was standing before the bed alone.

“Ah,” she said. “You got my message.”

“Your message?” Alec said.

Wood smiled and stepped aside. Q’s jaw dropped at the sight of James Bond, awake and sitting up. It was like all thought fled his mind, and only one thing slipped out.

“Daddy?!”


	3. Chapter 3

Q was utterly mortified the moment his ears registered what he’d said. He clapped his hands over his mouth in horror, but of course it was too late. James’s eyes went very wide and he stared at Q in shock. Alec, standing just behind Q, was very still. Wood looked between the three of them and coughed politely into her fist, already moving towards the door.

“I’ll give you three some space,” she said delicately. “Agent Bond, I’ll remind you that you’re not permitted to get out of bed yet. The antidote is still working itself through your system. Furthermore, your body has been under a lot of stress and you could easily give yourself a heart attack if you push yourself before you’re ready.”

“Sure,” James said, though Q could tell he’d barely heard a thing that Wood had said. Judging by the way that Wood rolled her eyes as she left, she knew it too.

Perhaps, Q thought hopefully as the door swung shut, James and Alec would be willing to cut Q a break by pretending that they hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. The alternative was too embarrassing to contemplate. He stood frozen, wishing he knew what to say to ease the tension in the room, but certain that anything he said would only make the situation worse.

Finally, Alec cleared his throat. “Good to see you awake, Jamsey.”

“Good to be awake,” James said, smoothly picking up a pillow and chucking it at Alec for the hated nickname. Alec grabbed the pillow out of mid-air before it could hit Q in the face. 

“No lasting damage, I assume?” Alec said, looking James over. He stepped around Q, moving closer to the bed so that he could give James a more thorough examination. James merely smiled, shaking his head.

“Shouldn’t be, but they don’t know anything for sure yet,” said James. “But you know me. I always come out of shit like this no worse for the wear.” His voice was full of humour, and, all things considered, he did look good. His face was pale and he needed both a shave and a haircut, but his eyes were bright and he clearly hadn’t lost any of his humour. The tight knot in Q’s chest eased slightly.

But along with that came a flood of emotion, one that Q was hard-pressed to hold back. It was only mid-afternoon and already the day had been extraordinarily long: first he’d found out that R had betrayed not only him but MI6 as a whole, and that she had tried to kill James. Then he’d been outed to all of MI6 as a Little. And now this, to say nothing of all the stress he’d been under for the past couple of weeks. He tightened his hands into fists, willing himself to hold it together.

Later. He could have a breakdown and deal with all of this _later_. After James had got a complete bill of health, after R was dealt with, after Q knew for sure how MI6 was going to react to his classification, after he had finished doing reviews of everything R had touched, after he figured out which, if any, of his employees had been helping her. There was just no time right now.

Yet James and Alec were exchanging a look that was loaded with meaning, but which Q’s exhausted and frazzled brain was unable to figure out. He’d seen them do that before. It was like they could have a whole conversation without saying a word, and it was immensely unfair because they always used it against him. Someday, Q was going to figure out how they did it.

“Q,” James said softly, his eyes settling on Q with piercing intensity. “Come here.”

The smart thing to do would have been to say no, but Q hadn’t said no to James Bond in a very long time and he wasn’t about to start no. His body moved without conscious thought, bringing him closer to the bed. His stomach churned with nerves under their combined gazes. Admittedly, he had been waiting for this moment for a long time – but now that it was here, he didn’t know what to do.

James had been sick for so long and things had been so awkward between Alec and Q. Undoubtedly, James would hear all about that in much more detail than Q wanted him to. It was enough to make Q want to turn around and run away. Not because he’d done anything wrong – or at least, he didn’t think he had – but because he was certain they would come to some conclusions that might ruin everything.

“Come here, Darling,” James repeated, holding a hand out. Q swallowed hard. His hand trembled as he lifted it and set it on James’s.

Then the door behind them burst open. James and Alec were responding before Q even fully registered that there was now someone else in the room with them; James’s fingers wrapped around Q’s hand and jerked him forward and onto the bed. The next thing he knew, James was half on top of him and his ears were ringing from the sound of gunshots and the edges of his glasses were painfully digging into his face and Alec was shouting. No, not just Alec. A whole bunch of people were shouting.

And over top of all the calamity was R’s voice.

“I’ll kill you all! I’ll kill you all!” she was screaming, her voice shrill and piercing. Then she laughed, and that was perhaps the worst sound of all. It sounded so unhinged. Deranged even, if Q were willing to be a bit dramatic, and considering the circumstances he absolutely was. He whimpered before he could stop himself.

“Fucking stop her, you absolute arses!” Alec yelled. “This is the bloody medical wing and you let people like her in here – get the hell out of my way!”

There was a flurry of movement and footsteps and more gunshots… and then silence, except for Q’s shaky breaths. He couldn’t see anything because of James was laying, and frankly he wasn’t sure he wanted to. The only thing worse would have been seeing R, because she knew Q well enough to be able to see _exactly_ how much she had affected him, and he didn’t want to give her that satisfaction.

“Q, are you okay?” James shifted, pushing himself up so that he could see Q’s face. He gently cupped Q’s cheek, pushing Q’s glasses up a bit. The corners of his lips tugged down into a frown and he rubbed at the imprint that the frames had left behind. The kind touch made tears well up in Q’s eyes.

"I'm fine," he said shakily, blinking hard. 

"You don't look fine," James said, and as always it was like he could see too much. 

Fortunately, a nurse poked her head into the room at that moment. "Are you both okay? Any injuries?"

"We're fine," Q said quickly, taking the opportunity to sit up. He flushed when he caught the nurse's speculative glance. Of course, she now knew that the Quartermaster was not dating 006 and 007. That cover story was now gone. Like everyone else, she was making assumptions about the nature of their relationship. Assumptions that Q was not comfortable with. He slid off the bed and straightened his shirt, not meeting her eyes.

"What the hell was that?" James asked at the same time.

"We didn't know she was here," the nurse said, sounding defensive. "She was hiding in one of our spare rooms. If you're both fine, I have to go. We have some injured people who do need care." She disappeared out the door, and James turned to Q.

"Q, what's going on? That was R. Why was she shooting at us?" he asked, and he was a smart man who could surely figure it out, but Q was compelled to tell him anyway.

"R is the one who poisoned you," he said bluntly, because James had never appreciated people who minced words. "Well, she contributed to it anyway. There were actually two toxins, which is why Medical has had such a hard time figuring out what was wrong with you. Moneypenny figured out that R was involved and enlisted someone from Q-branch to help her look at R's laptop. She brought the proof to me this morning, and then we both went to M. He issued a directive for R's arrest." Q paused and looked around, taking in the damage done for the first time.

There were bullet holes in the walls and the front of James's mattress. He was sickened to see that there was also a hole in James's pillow, exactly where James's head would've been had he not lunged over to protect Q. He also noticed for the first time that James had yanked his I.V. out when he moved. Q picked up the fallen pole, realizing that the bags had burst when they hit the floor. Fluid was leaking out of them, spreading across the floor. Was one of them the antidote? He had no idea how it had been administered...

"Obviously that directive caused R to go off the deep end," James said dryly, running a hand through his hair. "Stupid of her. Rather than give it one last try, she should've made a run for it."

"She was working with Blofield," Q revealed. That was probably why R had chosen to stay here rather than leave. At least within MI6, she could be relatively sure that no one was going to kill her. Well, unless Alec got a hold of her. Q smiled grimly as he moved to pick up a tray of medical equipment that had been upset when Alec went after R. Between Alec and Blofield, Q thought he would rather take his chances with the latter. 

"I see," James said, not sounding surprised in the slightest. "Q, be careful. Don't hurt yourself."

"Someone could step on them. I can't leave them on the floor," Q said, picking up a pair of scissors and a scalpel. "Anyway... she also sent an email out to the whole agency before her access was cut off."

"An email?" James repeated. "What did it say?"

Q said nothing, swallowing.

"Q? What did the email say?"

"She outed me as a Little to everyone," Q whispered, and then he made a quick escape before James could react. A volley of creative curses followed Q out the door, but the sound was quickly swallowed by all the chaos outside of James's room. There were nurses running every which way that Q looked. Numerous agents had swarmed the wing, apparently to look for R, and several MI6 staff members had come to help clean up. Q was momentarily shocked still by the frenzy of it all: R could have been standing just across the room and he never would've been able to tell.

"Q!" A hand fell on his shoulder, and Q looked over into Moneypenny's worried face.

"It was R," he said thickly, already anticipating her question. "Alec went after her."

"Good. I hope he tears her fucking head off," Moneypenny said, her eyes flashing. "Where's Bond? Is he okay?"

"He's in there," Q said, nodding to the room behind them. "He's awake, if you want to talk to him and get his report now. She was shooting at us, but I didn't see much. It was pretty much over before I even knew what was going on."

"I'll talk to Bond then, but you're sure you're okay?" Moneypenny asked, her eyes searching Q's face, and he was getting tired of that question.

"Yes, I'm fine," he said, more sharply than he'd intended, and ducked out from under her hand.

Moneypenny frowned. "Okay," she said doubtfully, but Q pretended not to notice her scepticism. He stepped away and grabbed the arm of a passing nurse.

"007 needs more of whatever was in his IV," Q said. "I don't know what it was, but I do know that he was receiving an antidote for a recent poisoning."

"007. Right," the nurse said, looking a little frantic. But she followed Moneypenny into James's room, which was good enough. With no one paying attention to him, Q made his own escape.


	4. Chapter 4

“Would you piss off? I’m _fine_ ,” Bond snapped, perhaps a little more harshly than was necessary, but at least it made the nurse who was fluttering around the room snap back with an affronted look. She huffed in his direction and stalked out, leaving Bond alone in blissful silence for all of thirty seconds until Moneypenny cleared her throat.

“Now that you’re done terrorizing innocent people, I’m to get your report,” she said dryly.

“My report is pretty much the same as everyone else’s. I woke up, got to talk to Q and Alec for about five minutes, and then R busted in,” Bond said shortly, glaring at the door. His reflects had got shit if he couldn’t even pull himself together long enough to stop a panicking Little from running away. But Q had been there one second and then out the door in the next, practically before Bond could blink. 

“Right,” Moneypenny said. “Did Q tell you what’s been happening?”

“Briefly,” Bond said, finally settling his gaze on Moneypenny. “He said that R outed him.”

Moneypenny nodded, her dark eyes flashing. “She sent an email around to everyone. By the time we knew what was happening, it was too late to retract it. Everyone at MI6 knows.”

Bloody hell. Bond had to bite his tongue to keep from cursing the air blue a second time. Q had poured his heart and soul into keeping his classification a secret, and R had pissed on all of that hard work with a single click of a button. But even though that would have been devastating for Q, Bond was pretty sure that there was more to the story. Something else had happened while he was unconscious.

“What else? I know she was working with Blofield,” he said, which didn’t surprise him. Blofield was nothing if not tenacious when it came to getting revenge. Of course he had more moles inside of MI6. It was unexpected that one of those moles had been Q-branch’s second-in-command, but then maybe it wasn’t. Blofield had a gift for getting inside of people’s heads, and Bond had been around long enough to know that being passed over for the position of Q had definitely bothered R.

“We’re still figuring it all out,” Moneypenny said wearily, running a hand through her hair. “Priority number one was combing through her emails and other files to figure out what the hell they’d done to you. Q was – I’ve never seen him like that before.”

Pouncing on the perfect opening Moneypenny had provided, Bond looked up at her beseechingly. “He didn’t take it well?”

Moneypenny scoffed. “Saying that he didn’t it well is a massive understatement. Q’s been a wreck during the past couple of weeks,” she revealed. “He hasn’t been sleeping, has barely been eating, hasn’t left MI6 in at least a week. And 006 hasn’t been any better.”

Bond’s frown deepened at that. He had been depending on Alec to step up and take care of Q while he was out, but apparently something had gone wrong. He’d thought that things had seemed tense when Q and Alec first walked into the room, but then Q had called him ‘Daddy’ and R had burst in and Bond hadn’t had the five minutes he needed to fully process everything. 

“What do you mean, Alec hasn’t been any better?” he asked, thinking that he might already know.

“He’s been totally obsessed with trying to figure out what happened to you. I’ve actually barely seen him around,” Moneypenny admitted. “And when he is here, he’s with Q.”

So, Alec and Q had spending some time together at least, though not as much as Bond would have liked. Though to some extent, he was not surprised by that either. Alec had always been someone who had trouble standing still. He needed to be _doing_ something. Knowing that Bond was dying and being unable to do anything about it would have been torture. In that respect, Alec and Q were similar.

But that didn’t explain why Alec hadn’t done a better job at taking care of Q, so he said, “Could you send Alec in here once you’re all done with him?”

“Sure. I think he’s being debriefed by Tanner right now, actually,” Moneypenny said. “They should be just about finished. There were a ton of witnesses. I have to go get R’s side of it.”

“She’s still alive?” Bond said, shocked.

Moneypenny smirked. “Barely. They had to pull 006 off of her. A doctor will patch her up and she’ll be sent to the local prison to await charges. It’s too dangerous to keep her here; there are too many agents who want a piece of her.”

“Blofield’s got friends in many places,” Bond warned. “If you want her to stay alive, be vigilant.” But even as he spoke, he knew that Moneypenny and the other MI6 agents would be fighting a losing battle. Blofield would be utterly paranoid about what R knew, and it was unlikely that R would be willing to kill herself to keep that information from getting into the wrong hands. That meant that R’s days were definitely numbered.

“I know,” Moneypenny said, her expression softening. “I’m glad you’re okay, 007.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you cared,” he said, offering her a teasing smile.

She snorted and rolled her eyes, walking towards the door. “You wish.”

“Send Alec in, would you?” he called after her, and she waved her hand in acknowledgment before she exited the room.

Left alone, Bond sighed and looked around his room. No doubt a nurse or someone else would be through at some point to move him somewhere else, considering the state of the place. Not that he really cared since he’d slept in far worse, but Medical tended to frown on their patients having to sleep in a bullet hole riddled bed. He wondered what the chances were that they’d let him leave once the I.V. was done. Probably not high.

It took about ten minutes before Alec returned to the room, shoulders slouched but with his colour high. His hair was mussed, his knuckles were scraped and bruised, and his shirt was ripped. He definitely looked like he’d been in a scuffle, though he’d clearly come out the winner. Much as he had with Q, Bond held a hand out to him. Unlike Q, Alec didn’t hesitate. He was beside the bed and taking Bond’s hand in a flash.

And then Bond tightened his grip, yanked Alec down, and slapped his partner upside the head.

“Ow! Jamsey, what the fuck!” Alec whined, even though Bond knew for a fact that he hadn’t hit hard enough to hurt. Alec had an infamously hard head which, while a boon out in the field, had caused more headaches for Bond than he could count on both hands. And he had the feeling that this was shaping up to be another.

“What did you do to Q?” Bond demanded.

“Uh, I didn’t do anything? Why, where is he?” Alec looked around the room in confusion. “Wait, is he okay?” Panic made his eyes bright as he straightened up, ready to charge out and look for their wayward Little.

“He’s fine. Physically,” Bond added, because he had his doubts about Q’s mental health right now. “I meant, what happened while I was out? You cared for him, didn’t you?”

Alec winced at the question and Bond’s heart sank as Alec said, “Well, I tried. He didn’t really seem to want me around. He didn’t want to go home, so there wasn’t much I could do here, you know? I did what I could. Really.”

“Alec,” Bond groaned, clasping a hand to his face. “You idiot. Of course Q didn’t want to go home. But you should have _made_ him go.”

“How?” Alec demanded. “He’s the bloody Quartermaster, James, in case you forgot. When we’re here, he’s not our Little. I can’t order him around. Besides, we were both pouring everything that we had into trying to find out what happened to you!”

Bond let his hand drop, looking at Alec closely. Guilt surged in his chest as he took in the new lines around Alec’s eyes, the obvious bags underneath said eyes, and the sallow look to Alec’s skin now that the glow of exertion had worn off. As bad as Q had looked, Alec looked no better. Yet they were supposed to _be_ better, because they were Caregivers and had a Little to look after. But Alec was right, because Bond knew better than anyone how stubborn Q could be…

“I’m sorry,” he said, keeping his voice gentle. “I didn’t mean to accuse you.”

“Yeah, you did. Fuck, you were probably right to. I should have pushed harder, but I backed off every time. I…” Alec’s gaze darted away, like he couldn’t bear to meet Bond’s eyes. “It made me think of Svetlana.”

The name gave Bond pause, and he immediately felt stupid for not having put two and two together earlier. Of course this whole thing had spiked Alec’s PTSD. Svetlana had been Alec’s first Little, long before Bond and Alec ever met. Alec spoke of her rarely, but with such emotion when he did that it was blatantly obvious that she was a wound that had never fully healed – and for good reason. 

Alec had only ever told Bond the full story once, and that was after a month-long mission that had left them both a wreck. On the verge of snarling at each other, they’d made the decision to get drunk off some cheap Russian vodka. Bond had been a good half a bottle in the hole before Alec started talking about his past. And what he’d said he stuck with Bond to this day.

Svetlana had been a fellow agent when Alec was still working as a Russian operative. The two of them had met and quickly struck up a relationship, being that Svetlana was a Little and Alec was a Caregiver. Like Q, Svetlana had been hiding her classification in order to work as an operative – a job that was strictly forbidden to Littles at the time. When Alec pushed her to reveal herself so that they could publicly be together, Svetlana had broken things off and moved out of their flat. The very next morning, her body had been found in her hotel room.

Poisoned.

Bond exhaled slowly, feeling as though a heavy weight had settled on his shoulders. “Alec…”

“I know. I know! It’s stupid. Q isn’t Svetlana.” Alec hunched his shoulders, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “It’s not the same thing at all, but I –”

“It’s okay,” Bond said softly.

“No, it’s not. I failed Q. Just like I failed her.” Alec looked completely miserable. “I’m a shit caregiver, James. I shouldn’t even with you or Q. I’m messing him up. I should just – just go.”

Automatically, Bond’s hand snapped out and he gripped Alec’s wrist. Alec froze, looking down at where their bodies connected, before slowly lifting his head to finally meet Bond’s eyes. The two men stared at each other for a long, tense moment. Neither one of them moved. Then someone shouted outside the room, accompanied by the smashing of glass, and that jolted them both into motion.

“James, you shouldn’t –”

“Alec, shut up. Just shut up!” Bond said over him. “You didn’t fail Q, okay? And you’re not a shit caregiver. This is still new for all of us. We’re still learning how to make this work. You and Q had a – a breakdown in communication. I mean, we’re fucking MI6 agents, the lot of us. Communication isn’t our strong point. That doesn’t make us bad for each other or incompatible, and it definitely doesn’t mean you should leave.”

Alec frowned. “Yeah, it does. I’m not good for Q. Not like you.”

Bond snorted at that. “I know Q a little better than you,” he reminded Alec. He was also a lot less inclined to hesitate or ask for permission, and sometimes Q needed that. Much like Alec, Q could get too caught up in his own head sometimes.

“Right. So clearly –”

“So clearly,” Bond said loudly, “the solution is for you and Q to get to know each other better. That won’t happen if you run away. And I think a good first step would be for you to tell Q about your past.”

“You want me to tell Q about Svetlana,” Alec said, very quietly.

“I think you should, but it’s your decision,” Bond said. Knowing he’d given Alec something to think about, he let go of Alec’s arm and threw his sheets back. “Now the I.V. is finally empty, so help me get up and find me goddamn clothes. We have a baby to find and comfort.”


	5. Chapter 5

There was only one place in MI6 where Q would go when he was feeling upset. Bond didn’t technically have permission to leave Medical, but everyone was still preoccupied with what had happened and so no one noticed Alec and him slipping out the door. As Alec kicked the door shut behind them, Bond took in a deep breath. Even with shaky legs and a need to lean heavily on Alec, he was relieved to be out of there.

No agent liked Medical, but the 00-agents had a particular dislike for the wing. Not only was it frustrating to have your every move be dictated by someone else, they were all used to being on the move all the time. Having to lay in bed and not do anything was maddening. Then there were all those stupid tests they’d insist on doing. Really, Bond was just doing them all a favour. The nurses wouldn’t have to argue with him, and he wouldn’t have to pretend to listen.

“Sure you can walk?” Alec asked dryly, turning to him.

“I don’t care if I have to crawl. I am not going back in there. I’m fine,” Bond said, knowing it to be true. His strength was returning surprisingly quickly. He was certain that any tests that Medical ran would come back with a clean bill of health, so there was no point in hanging around and wasting everyone’s time.

“Come on, then.” Alec took his arm and they proceeded at a slow space down the corridor to the lifts. Normally they both took the stairs, today Bond found he didn’t mind the old, shaky lift. He leaned against the wall, holding the hospital gown shut with one hand, and watched as Alec as they descended. The quiet uncertainty was out of place on Alec Trevelyan’s usually confident face.

Q-branch was quiet considering the time of day. Bond took that to mean that M had already summoned most of them for interviews to ascertain whether they’d had any involvement with R and what she’d done. Only a handful of people remained, and all of them kept their heads down as the two 00-agents crossed the room – which was just as well, as neither of them were in the mood to talk.

The door to Q’s office was closed, but that had never stopped them before. In a matter of seconds, Alec had picked the lock and was pushing the door open. Bond shuffled in first and was greeted by the sight of Q sitting in front of his computer, watching them with a resigned look on his face. He’d clearly been expecting them, which just showed how well Q knew them.

“You’re not cleared to be out of Medical yet. They wanted to run tests on your heart,” Q said. Over Q’s shoulder, Bond glimpsed his screen and saw that Q was looking at Bond’s medical file. How very like him. Bond smiled.

“My heart is fine. Medical is a mess,” he told Q, shuffling over to the sofa. “It’ll take them days, if not weeks, to sort themselves out. You know what they’re like. I’d snap before the first hour was through. It’s much better for me to rest up here, don’t you think?” And he sat down on the sofa with a sigh, carefully arranging the hospital gown over his lap.

Q looked like he wanted to argue, but in the end he sighed. “There’s clothing in the cabinet over there,” he said to Alec, jerking his chin.

Alec walked over to see, raising an eyebrow once he opened the cabinet. “Do I want to know why you have a full set of clothing for all three of us here?” he asked.

“Considering where we work, it would be remiss of me not to,” Q said shortly. Alec and Bond exchanged a look. Both were positive that the extra set of clothes for Q had a lot more to do with his classification than it did any potential experiments gone wrong, but neither of them were going to say that out loud.

“Here,” Alec said, tossing a pair of jeans, a jumper, and trainers. Not usually what Bond wore around MI6, but anything was a step up from a hospital gown. He stood up again and shed the gown, then quickly redressed. He felt much better once he was clad in denim and cotton, and actually had some shoes on as opposed to the flimsy Medical-issued slippers.

“Thanks,” he said to Q.

“It’s nothing,” Q said, very quietly. Behind him, Bond shot Alec a very pointed look. Alec frowned back. This time, Bond outright glared.

“Q, could we have a chat?” Alec said, conceding the point, and only Bond was close enough to see the way Q’s fingers trembled on the keyboard when Alec spoke.

And suddenly, Bond was tired of this. He, Q and Alec had been dancing around each other for ages. He’d thought that things were finally moving in the right direction before Blofield and R intervened, only to find that one part of their triangle was severely lacking. That just wouldn’t do, but nor was this something he could truly fix. Q and Alec had to put in the effort here.

“Alec, sit down,” he ordered, pointing to the chair. “Q, darling, come here.” He set his hand under Q’s arm and gently applied pressure. Several days laying down meant that Bond had lost some of his muscle mass, but he was absolutely certain he could’ve lifted Q with no problem. Q had definitely lost weight while all of this was happening. Regardless, he knew that Q would be furious to be manhandled right now and that starting things off on the wrong foot wouldn’t help anyone be open to listening.

There was a split second where he thought Q might not come, and Bond readied himself for an argument. But then a cooler head must have prevailed, because Q locked his computers and stood. He allowed Bond to lead him over to the sofa, and even sat when Bond lightly pushed him down. Tempting though it was to leave and let the two of them work it out on their own, Bond sat down too. They clearly couldn’t be trusted.

“Let’s make one thing clear before we go any further,” he said into the silence. “I want to be here. I want to be your caregiver, Q. Alec, I want you to be at my side so we can care for Q together. But if that’s not what either of you wants, please say as much now so that no one is wasting their time.”

Alec sighed. “It’s what I want too. Q, I owe you an apology. I’m sorry.”

“Wh-what?” Q stammered, eyes widening behind his spectacles until he looked like a baby owl.

“I’ve been a crap caregiver to you,” Alec admitted. “I didn’t know what you wanted. I’m not good at reading people like James is. It’s why so many of my missions are long term. It gives me time to ferret out the situation instead of having to respond on the fly.” He picked up a pen from Q’s desk, fiddling with it.

Q eyed him. “I wouldn’t play around with that if I were you. It’s not just a pen.”

“Oh,” Alec said, blinking, and then he set the pen back down before continuing. “I also have some – some baggage in relations to Littles.” And slowly, bit by bit, he told Q about Svetlana, adding in details that even Bond hadn’t heard about before. 

Q listened in silence, his head bowed, and his hands loosely clasped in his lap. That made it hard to know what he was thinking, but Bond hoped he was listening and taking this for what it was: not a peace offering, but sorely needed background information for context. Alec, on the other hand, was basically an open book. He was brimming over with frustration and regret, his words come faster as he neared the end of his story.

“It was frustrating to me that she didn’t want to be out… I thought that meant she was ashamed, and I did whatever I could to make her realize that she didn’t have to be. I wanted her to be proud of our relationship. I didn’t understand that she wasn’t. That she couldn’t be. Her job meant too much to her. I was used to taking my job for granted. I knew they’d never fire me; they needed me.

“I regret pushing her now. I wish we’d just sat down and bloody well talked. I wish I’d listened to her when she had talked. I wish I’d known how to ask the right questions. I wish…” Alec trailed off, restlessly tapping his foot on the floor, then let out a bitter laugh. “Well, I wish for a lot of things that I can’t have. But you’re here right now, with me – with _us_ , and I can tell you that I’m sorry for not being there when you needed me. I should’ve pushed a bit harder and let you know I was here for whatever you needed.”

There was a long pause after Alec was done speaking, during which Bond stared hard at Q and wished he was capable of reading minds. If he knew Q like he thought he did, then there was a good chance that Q would be understanding of what Alec had said. But things had changed while Bond had been unconscious – he couldn’t be sure that Q would react the same way, that they weren’t different people…

So, he decided to take a chance and spoke up. “Q, you called me ‘Daddy’ earlier.”

Q immediately hunched in on himself. What skin that Bond could see started to turn bright pink with embarrassment. Alec shot Bond a look over the top of Q’s head, clearly asking him what the hell he was doing. But Bond just smiled at him, feeling a little more secure now that he’d seen Q’s reaction. Someone who didn’t want anything to do with them wouldn’t have been that embarrassed, but someone who wanted _everything_ but wasn’t sure he could have it, well.

The two of them really were ill-matched. Here was Alec, too afraid to push for fear that he would send Q running out the door. And then there was Q, too afraid to ask for what he wanted in case he was asking for too much and lost everything as a result. Both of them scared in their own ways. Good thing that Bond was reckless to a fault and had never hesitated to push forward even where others would tread lightly.

“I don’t mind,” Bond said, very gently. “In fact, I liked it.”

 _That_ provoked a reaction. Q’s head snapped up, teary eyes settling onto Bond with shock as he squeaked out, “Wh-what?” 

“You can call me that anytime you want. I’m sure Alec wouldn’t mind a nickname of his own,” Bond went on.

“R-really?” Q whispered, turning his head just enough that he could see Alec in his peripheral vision.

“I – well – if you want to,” Alec said, seemingly disconcerted.

Bond rolled his eyes. “That’s a yes,” he said, and this time it was his turn to give Alec a look. They were going to have to be the brave ones here. He may not have known everything about Q’s background, but he knew enough to know that Q had already been rejected several times over. Once bitten, twice shy. 

“I… oh.” Q exhaled and it was as though all of the tension went with that breath of air, his shoulders slumping. “I thought – you were so distant, and it didn’t seem like you wanted to be here…”

Alec winced. “I have a hard time being in MI6 with nothing to do, but that wasn’t directed at you, Q.”

“Would you call me…” Q trailed off, peeking up shyly, and Alec’s whole face softened.

“Kotenok,” he said, the warm rumble of his Russian accent visibly making Q shiver. 

“I just didn’t know what to do,” Q admitted quietly, looking down at his feet. “If something had happened to James, I – I didn’t know if you’d want…”

“Ah,” Alec muttered. “I’ve really been a fool.” He wrapped an arm around Q’s shoulders and pulled Q into a hug. Q sank into him, a thin tremor running through him as he wound his arms around Alec’s waist and clung to him. Bond smiled with satisfaction at the sight of the two of them.

Not even a gentle knock on the door could disturb them. Bond lifted his head and called, “Come in.”

Moneypenny poked her head in. “I knew you’d be here,” she said when she saw the three of them. Alec and Q completely ignored her, both lost in a world of their own, but Bond blinked at her innocently.

“Where else would I be?” he asked.

She snorted. “Where else, indeed. If you won’t go back to Medical, would you at least consider a vacation?”

Bond contemplated that for a moment, realizing that the idea had merit. It would give him, Alec and Q the opportunity to really straighten things out. Better yet, it would give the three of them a chance to find their footing and focus on their relationship for a few days. Perhaps thinking they could iron things out amongst the challenges of their jobs had been a pipe dream to begin with.

“We’ll think about it,” he said agreeably.

“Good,” Moneypenny said with a sigh. “Because I’ve already booked the three of you off for two weeks, effective tomorrow.”

“What?” Q cried, head shooting up. “But the – I have to –”

“Julian and I can handle it, along with Tanner,” Moneypenny told him sternly. “ _If_ we come across something that we can’t, we’ll contact you. Or it can wait. Seriously, Q. M’s order. This is non-negotiable. MI6 won’t get very far if you burn out.”

“But…” Q pouted, thrusting his lower lip out, but Moneypenny wasn’t swayed. She came close enough to dump a folder into Bond’s lap, then returned to the door. 

“You’re going,” she said over her shoulder as she went, gently closing the door behind her, and Bond picked up the file. As he leafed through it, he realized that she hadn’t been joking. She hadn’t just booked vacation; she had booked a whole trip for them. He looked at Alec and Q.

“I guess we’re going on vacation.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


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